A blog of mostly sentimental stories of my childhood & family, sprinkled with tales of my grandchildren, & my day to day life, along with my love of gardening & decorating thrown in for good measure. Come walk with me. . .

Monday, June 9, 2008

Water...

Without thinking this morning, I went to the frig & filled my glass with iced cold water & downed my daily dose of pills. Yuck! That crystal clear glass of water suddenly did not taste quite right and I quickly did a lot of spitting and sputtering around. I had forgotten that we are on an advisory not to drink the water without first boiling it.

I decided I needed to make a necessary trip to Sam's Club to load up on some bottled water...& maybe a few other beverages. :) (Angie Davis...notice my Starbucks Cappuccino!)

Bob had called earlier & asked that I not venture into town today as the traffic & roads were terrible. Hwy 46 was going to open up around noon, but before that all local traffic was detouring up to the Taylorsville exit and I had heard that traffic was extremely heavy. Bob said it was taking him about an hour to get into town & it just wasn't worth me getting out in that mess...even though I do have a bad case of "cabin fever"! (I could be doing yard work, but it's extremely hot & humid & it will just have to wait.)

Anyway...we are now supplied with beverages and I did get to make a little trip. I tried to get a few pictures but my camera just doesn't capture what is really there. The fields are sodden with water...corn stalks & weeds everywhere...the ponds on each side of Carr Hill Road filthy with debris and mud. And no telling what is in town, just across our beautiful Red Bridge.

Hopefully we will never see anything like this happen again. It was record breaking so none of us alive should be around for the next "100 year" flood. However...1913 wasn't quite 100 years ago, was it?

I found out that water was still running across Carr Hill Road. It actually was pouring over the roadway rapidly & I was a little apprehensive about driving through it but saw that cars ahead of me made it just fine. The long building in the picture is the back of Menards and Sam's Club is just west of there.

Down in the cornfield, I noticed 4 white birds, unusual ones for this area. They looked like egrets to me. I "googled" them when I got home, and sure enough, they are egrets, a type of heron. They were described as "fish eaters, also known to eat worms & snakes"! No wonder they were having lunch in that field! I was so glad I hadn't gotten out of my car to go see what they were feasting on! I'm also wondering what happened to all of the wildlife around Mill Race Park, Driftwood & White Rivers. Did they escape? We sometimes see deer in the cornfields near the rivers edge and I'm sure there were a lot of other animals living in that habitat. Surely some of them were able to outrun the flooding waters.

Not all of this field was under water, but even so, it is very wet. As I drove down the hill I noticed the wildflowers growing there & appreciated that even in the middle of troubles & storms, there can be something beautiful. I think we are finding out through this flood, that although many people have lost their earthly possessions, they have found the beauty of help and friendship from family, friends, neighbors, and even strangers that want to help.

A view of Hwy 46, now opened, with the receding East Fork of the White River behind our new Walgreen store, on the north side of the highway.

In Memory of my Mother

Angel in my memory garden

My back patio garden

Front porch urns

Queen Dorothy Iris--a gift from a friend!

Monarda-or Bee Balm

Dwarf Grapette Daylilies

Butterfly on Lantana

About Me

I'm of the "Baby Boomer" era...grew up in Central Missouri, lived a few years in Kansas, & have spent the last 35 years in Indiana. We have been married for 42 years, had two wonderful children & now have six precious grandchildren! My life now revolves around helping to care for my grandchidren & hoping they learn to love Jesus. We attend a conservative church where my husband is the pianist.